Tuesday, September 6, 2005

Celebrating special needs children!

A recent article on the attitude shift among doctors to the diagnosis of Downs' Syndrome indicates that physicians are increasingly able to see the joy in every child.

Brian Skotko, a medical student from Harvard has done extensive research in the field, partly inspired by his own 24-year-old sister who has DS. He calls this negative attitude "a woeful lack of sensitivity and even objectivity." A diagnosis of DS before birth or after birth has been met with the same attitude: that early detection could save the family from embarrassment. Early detection, of course, means the next step is the abortion of this child with special needs.

Naturally, the Planned Parenthood has been a force behind this agenda. As the famous slogan of their founder goes, "every child should be wanted and loved." While it is a lofty goal for every child to be loved and cherished, the Planned Parenthood's goal is simply not that.

Their agenda not only speaks to the "time and place" to have a child, but also the physical features or abilities of the child. Margaret Sanger herself, the founder of the Planned Parenthood, believed in creating an elitist race where there would be no minorities, poor people nor people with disabilities. Their goal is to make it a social sin for a child to be born when he or she is not physically attractive, healthy and born into a wealthy family. The advocate abortion and contraception in all other cases.

Sadly, doctors have taken this seriously and redefined the right to life accordingly to mean that only a certain type of child is capable or worthy of being loved based on his physical health.

According to a study conducted by Skotko, mothers chose to continue their pregnancies after an adverse pre-natal diagnosis, not because of encouragement by their physician, but because of a number of other factors including conscience, religions influence and partner's opinion. "The majority [of mothers] had been scared and anxious after getting their screening test result, largely because DS had not been explained to them or, for those who already knew something about the condition, because up-to-date information had not been given," Skotko found. In more recent years, however, physicians were more supportive and encouraging of a child with special needs.

Earlier this year, Skotko gave a 10-point plan for helping doctors to communicate the adverse diagnosis with the new parents. Please share this information with your doctor.